By combining Applied DNA’s SigNature DNA technology with research and development at CNSE’s Albany NanoTech Complex, the two companies will be able to accelerate the development of SigNature DNA product. This will allow for the discovery of new ways to place DNA markers on every aspect of a microchip, not just the finished product, as is currently the case.

James Hayward, Applied DNA’s president and CEO, and Michael Fancher, CNSE’s vice president for business development, explained that manufacturers build wafers and then send them to different companies to construct microchips.

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“This is a much deeper dive [into counterfeit prevention] by involving even the smallest component, which is the wafer,” Hayward said. “Before this, we had only marked the final chip project. This will allow us to mark chips before they are diced and packaged. That’s critical now, given the model of complex manufacturing these chips go through.”

And by combining Applied DNA’s SigNature DNA anticounterfeiting technology with the other research and development companies in the Albany NanoTech Complex, both Hayward and Fancher believe it could lead to more business for technology companies in New York state.

“The infrastructure at Albany is not available anywhere else in world,” Hayward said. “In the long run, this convergence will serve to both protect America against scourge of counterfeit microchips and bring manufacturing jobs back to America.”

“We’re going to be launching a major business effort targeting the aero industry, especially with regard to military planes and drones,” Fancher said. “We see it as a great opportunity to partner up with larger defense corporations like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.”

Albany’s technology park is such a draw for Hayward, the Applied DNA Sciences president and CEO said he could see his company building a laboratory facility there before too long. Such a statement could raise red flags given the loss of other technology companies on Long Island recently, but Hayward assured skeptics that the decision to build a facility in Albany did not mean the Stony Brook-based company was considering leaving Long Island.

“Our business model demands regional access to DNA testing,” he said. “We have a facility here in Stony Brook that does embedment, and we have a similar one in the north of England. We’re also contemplating one in Germany and contemplating another in Ohio with the military. A facility in Albany would be similar to that setup.”